Leukemia: An overview

Leukemia: An overview What Is Leukemia? Leukemia is the general term used to describe four different disease-types called: Acute Myelogenous (AML), Acute Lymphocytic (ALL), Chronic Myleogenous (CML), and Chronic Lymphocytic (CLL). AML, the most common type of leukemia, is an attacking cancer of the bone marrow and blood. ALL, the most common in young children and adults over 50, is a cancer of the lymphocytes. CML is a cancer of the blood-producing cells of the bone marrow. CLL is a cancer of the lymphocytes. What are the Symptoms of Leukemia? The symptoms for leukemia depend on the type of leukemia. For AML, the symptoms are: fatigue, weakness, easy bruising or bleeding, weight loss, fever, bone or abdominal pain, difficulty breathing, frequent infections, swollen glands, and swollen or bleeding gums. For ALL, the symptoms are: fatigue, weakness, easy bruising or bleeding, weight loss, fever, bone or abdominal pain, dyspnea (difficulty breathing), frequent infections, swollen glands, and enlarged liver or spleen. For CML, the symptoms are: fatigue, excessive sweating, weight loss, and abdominal swelling or discomfort because of enlarged spleen. For CLL, the symptoms are: swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck, under the arms, or in the groin, discomfort or fullness in the upper left part of the abdomen because of enlarged spleen, fatigue, fever or infection, abnormal bleeding, and weight loss. What is the Diagnosis? The diagnosis for leukemia again depends on the type of leukemia. For AML, the tests that may be used to diagnosis a patient with AML are: blood tests, bone marrow biopsy, lumbar puncture, imaging tests, and subtypes. The tests that may be used to diagnose a patient with ALL is a little bit different. They are: blood tests, bone marrow biopsy, flow cytometry and cytochemistry, cytogenetics, lumbar puncture, and imaging tests. The tests for CML are: blood tests, bone marrow biopsy, cytogenetics, and imaging tests. The tests for CLL are: blood tests, bone marrow biopsy, flow cytometry and cytochemistry, and imaging tests. Some of the factors that may be considered by your doctor when choosing a diagnosis test are: age and medical condition, the type of cancer, severity of symptoms, and previous test results. What are the Risk Factors? A risk factor is anything that increases a persons chance of developing cancer. Some can be controlled, while some others cant. Most do not directly cause cancer. The risk factors that may raise your chances to get any one of those types of leukemia are: your age, if you smoked or if you are smoking, genetic disorders, high doses of radiation, if you had a previous chemotherapy treatment, race, viruses, gender, family history, and ethnicity. What is the Treatment? The treatment for each type of leukemia may depend on the classification, how healthy the person is, the patients stage, risk status, the subtype, morphology, and cytogenetics. Some of the kinds of treatments are: chemotherapy, induction, complete remission (CR), consolidation therapy, maintenance therapy, re-induction therapy, and central nervous system prophylaxis (preventive treatment), consolidation or intensification, Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia Treatment (APL), Imatinib, Dasatinib, Nilotinib, stem cell transplantation/bone marrow transplantation, Interferon, SCT, Hydroxyurea, and Biologic therapy. What are the Side Effects of Cancer and Cancer Treatment? Cancer and cancer treatment can cause a variety of side effects. Some of the side effects are: constipation, fatigue, hair loss, infection, mouth sores, nausea and vomiting, Neutropenia, skin problems, and Thromboc- ytopenia. Not all patients have side effects. What about After Treatment? After treatment, talk to your doctor about developing a follow-up care plan. People that are in remission should have regular follow-up examinations for a few years to see if there is any sign of relapse or late effects. What are Some Questions to Ask the Doctor? Some questions that you should ask the doctor are: â€Å"What is my Diagnosis?, What does this all mean?, What subtype of (ALL, AML, CML, and CLL) do I have?, What are the possible side effects of this treatment?, What clinical trials are open to me?, Do I need to start treatment right away?, How likely is it that my (ALL, AML, CML, or CLL) will go into remission?, How will the treatment affect my normal activities, including my ability to work or attend school?, What support services are available to me?, Can you recommend a leukemia specialist?, and Where is the best place for me to be treated?.† What is the Classification for ALL Leukemia? The doctors classify ALL based on the type of lymphocytes that are affected.

We Must Have the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Essay -- argumentative, pe

Within the United States Constitution, amendments one through ten referred to as the â€Å"Bill of Rights† contains amendment two which reads â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed† (States, 1789). Despite this amendment, gun control still remains one of the most highly-debated issues in the United States. While the Constitution clearly states our right â€Å"to keep and bear Arms†, the gun control lobbyists continue to challenge this right by using the media to convey misleading stories on how guns by themselves are the problem. By contrast, the real issues are not the guns but the people who use them. Therefore guns should not be used as a political patsy to avoid dealing directly with the real issues that prompt gun-related violence. After the incidents at Columbine and Virginia Tech., a typical emotional reaction would be to blindly demand a b an on all firearms or wish they never existed in the first place. Some may feel motivated to push for legislation that makes us feel like we are "doing something," but this may not accomplish anything, or worse, it could do more harm (Schools and Gun Violence, 2008). Therefore the problems with American society are not related to the possession of firearms, but rather an unraveling of ethics and morals. To preserve our civil liberty such as the right to keep and bear arms, our current laws must be enforced consistently. Adding additional restrictions on our civil liberties will only ensure that one day our rights will slowly erode away, until gone completely. Just as any restriction put on the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances can be viewed as a violation... ...amounts to nothing less than tyranny: an insult to the intelligence of the people. Gun control underestimates the ability of citizens to educate themselves in proper weapons storage and usage. Gun control places too much power in the hands of the government, which can so easily turn on the people. The American Constitution should rarely be tampered with; its Bill of Rights was written with wisdom and foresight. The right to keep and bear arms is immutable. Works Cited Association, N. R. (2010). Issues. Retrieved June 11, 2011, from NRA: http://home.nra.org/#/ila Schools and Gun Violence. (2008, June 29). Retrieved June 11, 2011, from GunSite: http://guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvscho.html States, C. o. (1789, March 4). Bill of rights. Retrieved June 11, 2011, from http://www.archives.gov: http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

Chemistry of Biomolecules Essay

Our class on DNA is divided into 3 parts: (I) Genetics (II) DNA structure (III) Concepts and applications. I. Genetics: In the primordial period, simple molecules were formed from atoms and from these molecules, macromolecules were formed. These macromolecules formed life and all living organisms. The classical genetic and heredity observations in the 19th century started the search for the origin of life. The transforming principle of DNA was demonstrated from the experiment in which non-pathogenic (R-form) and virulent (S-form) but heat treated bacteria, when co-injected, could kill the mice. After that, the link between genes (DNA) and genotype / phenotype was established. The link between the features of an organism and genes was established. II. DNA structure: The genomic DNA of a eukaryotic cell is located in a special organelle, the nucleus, whereas in a prokaryotic cell there is no nucleus. In a virus, including bacteriohage, the genome is packed efficiently. The nucleus of a human cell contains complete genetic DNA, organized in 46 chromosomes (22 autosomal pairs and two sex chromosomes). Chromatid is one of the two identical copies of DNA in a chromosome. The two copies approach each other at the centromere. The ends of DNA in a chromosome are called telomere. The location of a gene in a chromosome is marked as, say, 7q31.2 where 7 refers to the chromosome number, q is the long arm (the short arm of the chromosome is called ‘p’), 3 refers to the region of a chromosome when colored using a particular process, 1 refers to band 1 in that region and 2 refers to a sub-band within band 1. In the chromatin, DNA is wound around the histone core (made by 2 copies each of the H2A, H2B, H3 and H4 proteins) and clamped by the H1 protein. Anytime this DNA is accessed for any biochemical reaction, there will be physical rearrangement of DNA and the histone core and furthermore the histone proteins undergo chemical modifications, like acetylation and methylation. Two strands of DNA form duplex DNA through base-pairing. In a basepair, the two bases are unlikely to be perfectly aligned or coplanar. In the same token, two adjacent basepairs also need not be perfectly parallel to each other. There are three forms of DNA: B-DNA, A-DNA and Z-DNA. The B form is the physiological form. The other two forms are man-made from specific sequences. While the first two forms are right handed helices, the last one is left-handed. In the B-form, the minor groove is narrow and the major groove is wide whereas in the A and Z forms, the groove widths are nearly the same. Also, a basepair in the B-form cuts the helical axis whereas in the A-form, a basepair is very much away from the helical axis. However, in the Z-form a basepair lies in-between. Supercoiled DNA: In a chromosome (or even in a circular plasmid), DNA exists in a supercoiled form. Several studies have established the connection between the number of base-pairs (linking number, twist) and the level of supercoiling (writhing number). Assume there are 260 B-DNA base-pairs (10 base-pairs will form one full turn, Fig. 1; start from base-pair 1 on a strand and come to the same but one earlier position on the same strand after 10 base-pairs; the next 10 base-pairs form the next one round and so on). Now, convert the linear DNA into circular DNA by connecting the ends of the same strands. The twist T = total base-pairs / 10 = 260/10 = 26. The linking number is the number of times one strand crosses the other, which is also 26. So the equation becomes, L = T + W; or 26 = 26 + 0 Now cut only one strand and unwind that strand two times and reconnect the ends. That means, L becomes 24. In order to balance the above equation, 24 = 26 – 2 or W becomes -2. Or, the new circular adjusts (writhes) with two cross-overs. If you over-wind by two, L = 28 and W = +2. Even now, the circular DNA writhes by 2 but in the opposite direction. Apart from DNA, RNAs are also very important in several cellular processes. There are 3 types of RNA, mRNA, rRNA and tRNA. Of these 3 classes, the tRNA is normally depicted in the ‘clover leaf’ form, displaying its amino acid acceptor region and the anti-codon region. An amino-acyl tRNA synthetase enzyme attaches a corresponding amino acid to the tRNA. An important and emerging field is non-coding RNA. Class 1b III. Applications and concepts: There are several applications and processes that involve nucleic acids. However, due to the limitation of time, we will learn only a few applications. 1. DNA replication: In molecular biology, the important fundamental processes are: the cell cycle (including DNA replication – the making of DNA using a DNA template), transcription (the making of mRNA using a DNA template) and translation (the making of a protein using mRNA as a template). The next level of events includes reverse transcription (the making of DNA using an RNA template) and the making of RNA using an RNA template. The making of a protein using a DNA template is not yet known. In prokaryotic DNA replication, DNA is unwound by enzymes like helicases and long leading strands ( for the parental 3’ to 5’ strand) and several short lagging strands (for the parental 5’ to 3’ strand) are made by the DNA polymerase. The short fragments are joined by ligases. If there is any problem during DNA synthesis, like base-pair mismatch, selected enzymes fix those problems. In a eukaryotic cell, there are several origins of DNA replication (dedicated sequences in DNA) in a chromosome. DNA replication must be initiated only once per origin per cell cycle. First, origin replication protein complex (ORC) binds to the origin of replication. The CDC6 protein (CDC28 in yeast) binds to ORC. The CDT1 protein binds to CDC6. Next, the mini chromosome maintenance proteins 2 to 7 (MCM 2-7) binds to the above proteins. The assembly of all these proteins is called ‘licensing’ and the above complex of all these proteins is called the pre replication complex (pre-RC). There are two modes by which DNA re-replication is prevented. The first mode is through the involvement of cyclin dependent kinases (CDKs). We are not going to review that mode here. The other mode is through the involvement of geminin, a protein. Once DNA replication is initiated, Geminin binds to Cdt1 and primes it for degradation. Once Cdt1 is removed from the pre-RC, there cannot be another DNA replication firing. At the end of the cell cycle, even geminin is degraded. This way, DNA replication takes place only once per cell cycle. We have published the structure of geminin. The geminin-Cdt1 complex structure is also published by another group. 2. Cloning: In conventional sexual reproduction or in vitro fertilization (IVF), an egg is impregnated by a sperm cell. But in cloning, the nucleus of an egg is removed and a nucleus from any suitable cell from an individual is implanted. This cell grows with the same genetic make-up of the nucleus donor (not the egg donor). 3. DNA microarray: This development is an important tool to study how a normal cell and an affected cell (say, a cancer cell) behave and what are the genes that are up-regulated and down-regulated. On a commercial DNA chip, unique and short single stranded DNA fragments of all known human genes (as of today) are immobilized on glass. Take a normal cell and a cancer cell. Make complementary DNA for all the RNAs in the cells. Treat the normal cell DNA with a dye (say green) and that of the cancer cell with a red dye. Now pass the two pools of DNA through the chip. The genes that are active only in the normal cell (thereby making mRNA and hence cDNA) will bind to their complementary fragments (immobilized on the chip) and will emit green signal when detected. Similarly, the genes that are active only in the cancer cell will bind to their complementary fragments and will emit red signal. The genes that are common to both cells will give out yellow signal. From this we can learn which genes are upregulated and down regulated in a particular cell for a particular disease condition. 4. Transgenic / reporter genes: Selected color displaying proteins, like green fluorescent protein (GFP), can be used as reporters to identify the location of protein expression for a protein of interest. The GFP gene is attached to the gene of our interest and injected in an embryo and the location of protein expression is visually observed. Such techniques can be used to generate multicolored ornamental fish for the same species. 5. DNA protein interaction: Several proteins interact with DNA. For example, transcription factors bind to the promoter / enhancer regions of a gene. Restriction enzymes bind to and cut DNA. DNA polymerase is involved in DNA replication and RNA polymerase is important for transcription. Furthermore, amino-acyl tRNA synthetases bind to tRNAs and attach corresponding amino acids to them. 6. RNA interference: Most of the free forms of RNA, messenger RNA molecules in particular, are single strands. tRNAs and selected RNA regions are double-stranded. Many viruses, however, form long stretches of double-stranded RNA when they replicate. When our cells find double-stranded RNA, it is often a sign of an infection. However, plant and animal cells have a more targeted defense that attacks the viral double stranded RNA directly, termed RNA interference. Viral double-stranded RNA are cut into pieces (about 21 base-pairs), called small interfering RNA (SiRNA) by the protein Dicer. The argonaute protein strips away one strand from the siRNA, and then looks for any viral messenger RNA that matches it. If it finds some, it cleaves the RNA, destroying it. In this way, the cell removes all viral messenger RNA that is the same as the original double-stranded piece found and processed by dicer. Based on this principle, we can synthesize a non-natural interfering RNA, then insert it into a cell to destroy any messenger RNA that we desire. Researchers use these small RNA molecules to fight disease, for instance, using them to knock out cancer genes. 7. RNA modifying enzymes: RNA has to be modified in selected cellular processes. For example, uridine is modified to pseudo-uridine by pseudo-uridine synthase enzymes.

Cultural Diversity Of The United States - 896 Words

Culture can be defined as â€Å"language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, ceremonies, and symbols† (Merriam-Webster, 2014). The United States is currently experiencing a dramatic change regarding cultural diversity. According to a recent census, 36.3 percent of the United States population belongs to an ethnic or racial minority (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). Increased immigration from around the world is continually adding to the numbers of our already culturally diverse nation. However, despite a marked increase in life expectancy, a decrease in infant mortality, and other health care improvements, many minority groups still experience poorer access to heal care. It should be the goal of every health care worker, especially nurses, to do all that is in their power to not only culturally congruent care but also to attempt to eliminate these health care related disparities. To successfully achieve this goal, a nurse must be willing to adapt his or her care to appropriately fit the values of the patients they are caring for. This can sometimes be a difficult goal to achieve, especially if the patients cultural differences cause conflict with what the health care provider feels is the most appropriate medical care. The first step in providing culturally competent care requires a nurse to make an unbiased examination of their own background, culture, and potential personal stereotyping. The second step is gatheringShow MoreRelatedCultural Diversity in the United States514 Words   |  2 Pages I hail from the hearth of cultural diversity in the United States of America, New York City. Therefore it wouldnt be a surprise that all of my conscious life, Ive been surrounded by different cultures, backgrounds, and views divergent from my own. 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